The Guild of Church Musicians and the Future

Canon Jeremy Haselock, Warden

athering in Oxford last month, the Annual General Meeting of the Guild Genthusiastically approved a raft of suggestions for updating our core documents, streamlining our working methods, improving communications within the Guild and on the web, and, most important of all, making our examination and award programme more sharply focussed on the needs of today’s Church. I am most grateful to the members present at the May gathering for their support and sharing the vision of Council. At the suggestion of many I now share the most signiicant of what are no longer suggestions but decisions with readers of Laudate. First, we are to tidy up the legal format of the Guild, bringing it into the twenty-irst century. Nothing will change as far as Guild and oversee external communications alongside members are concerned as these changes involve Michael Walsh who will continue to edit Laudate. only format rather than the way the Guild is All other portfolios will be retained by their run. The Registered Ofice of the Guild will current holders. We are reducing the size of be transferred to St. Michael’s Church, Council, limiting membership to those with Cornhill, London, EC3V 9DS where Bishop speciic tasks, and meetings will from now on Stephen Platten, the new Rector and a good be held jointly with a similar slimmed-down friend of the Guild, is setting up a centre for Academic Board. I am very grateful to those Liturgy and Music. There are also some changes whose position on Council was purely advisory to the constitution, using the standard Companies and who are now stepping down; they have been House format, in order to clarify the legal of immense help to the Guild and I hope they will responsibilities of Oficers and Council members continue to support us with the lustre associated as trustees. Once the necessary legislation has with their names and membership of a small been enacted by the Government, the Guild will Advisory Group which will meet once a year to move over to become a Charitable Incorporated review the work of Council. Organisation which will simplify our accounting Hugh Benham, as Chairman of the Academic procedures and formal reporting. Board, is charged with a thorough review of We have made some small changes among the our examination and awards system. He has Oficers of the Guild. Bob Andrews, currently convened a small working party to assist with this Treasurer and Membership Secretary, will and they are making good progress. They have continue to deal with this aspect of our work recommended a new level of award within our but in the position of Company Secretary. John system, that of Licentiate (LGCM) for those who Ewington will become the Conference Secretary have satisfactorily completed the larger part of while all other administrative tasks will be the Fellowship requirements but have been unable undertaken by June Williams as Administrative to submit a dissertation. We are also formally Secretary. Robert Leach will run our website adding HonGCM, Honorary Member of the

May 2015 1 Guild, to our list of honorary awards as it appears and Council have worked to develop a sensible to have been missed out of the constitution. degree of autonomy while maintaining every A small sub-committee is also revising and possible link with us here in Britain. We welcome simplifying our academic dress. this new conidence as a serious move towards As you can see from what is before you, the AGM liturgical, musical and academic inculturation. authorised the redesign of Laudate and gave the Later this year, with other oficers of the Guild, I editor an increased budget to commission articles hope to visit Australia and learn from their many from beyond the membership of the Guild. We strengths and skills. will print extra copies to circulate as publicity The Warden’s working party recommended the material and, in time, include a pdf version on development of a closer and more co-operative the website. We have abolished the separate relationship with the RSCM and that Barry Yearbook as the publication of members’ details Williams be co-opted to Council to work with has been found to raise issues of privacy. All the the RSCM. In this connection, with Barry and statutory material (accounts etc.) and examination June Williams I attended a very useful, full day questions previously published in the Yearbook meeting with the senior management team of the will be found in the future in Laudate. Robert RSCM and we are making good progress with a Leach is also investigating the redesign of our programme of mutual co-operation. The RSCM website to make it more user-friendly, contain will now be kept informed formally of The Guild’s more material of general musical and liturgical activities, and they will share matters of common interest, and feature a password-protected, concern and interest with us. members-only section. Perhaps we should also Last, but by no means least, we hope to address move into the ield of social media and investigate the matter of ecumenism with more seriousness. both a Twitter account and a Facebook page. We I hope, with the help of Sister Avril OP, to open are keen to ind out more about our members up new avenues of co-operation with Roman at home and abroad and would like to compile Catholic church musicians and liturgists and to a register of talents, skills and abilities. We are encourage the Academic Board to take more designing a questionnaire with a view to discover account of the musical and liturgical traditions of more about our talent pool. I hope the form will the Free Churches when revising the syllabus. be included in the next edition of Laudate. We continue to rejoice in and draw strength from the lourishing of the Australian incarnation of the Guild. Under the leadership of Bishop Richard Jeremy Haselock Hurford, the Sub-warden, the Australian Oficers Warden

The Members of the GCM Council

Warden: ...... The Revd Canon Dr Jeremy Haselock Sub-Warden: ...... Revd Fr Peter Allan CR General Secretary and Registrar: ...... June Williams Treasurer: ...... Robert Andrews Conference and Presentations Service Secretary: ...... John Ewington OBE Chairman Academic Board and Fellowship Director: ...... Dr Hugh Benham Fellowship Secretary: ...... Edward Scott Examinations Secretary: ...... Dr Helen Burrows Editor of Laudate: ...... Dr Michael Walsh Webmaster: ...... Robert Leach Representative of Religious Orders and the RC Church: ...... Sister Avril Foster OP Academic Board Secretary: ...... Roger Wilkes Carl Jackson MVO Dr Alan Thurlow

2 Laudate 87 From the Administrative Secretary

THE OXFORD MEETING 1st and 2nd May, 2015

n Friday evening, 1st May, ifty members world of church music and liturgy. Our whole and guests sat down to an enjoyable dinner examination structure, the working together with Oat the Oxford Spires Four Pillars Hotel in other similar organisations, particularly the RSCM, the Abingdon Road. Speeches were made by our and much more. You will be able to read a report President, Dame Mary Archer, John Ewington, Rev. of all this in the next Laudate. John Paton, Precentor of Christ Church Cathedral, After a very good buffet lunch, we all moved up His Honour Judge Anthony Russell, QC and our the road to Merton College, where we enjoyed a Warden, Jeremy Haselock. wonderful recital by the choir, under Ben Nicholas, Members came from Europe, South Africa and son of Michael and Heather Nicholas. The choir New Zealand. We also welcomed Richard Fenwick, had given a public recital on the previous evening our former Warden, now Bishop of St Helena. It and we enjoyed an hour of that music, which was wonderful that these people came such long included works by James MacMillan I will take you distances to be with us. It was the irst oficial visit of the Guild to this “City of dreaming spires”, as Matthew Arnold called it in his famous poem, depicting the view of the city from Boars Hill. The hotel is a very ine modern one with a leisure centre, pool etc and most excellent rooms. Many people commented on its high standard. The staff looked after us very well. A hearty buffet breakfast was enjoyed on Saturday morning, followed later by coffee and then a most interesting illustrated talk by composer Philip Spratley on the subject of The Fortunate Harvest – how folk music has influenced our hymnody. Our numbers had swelled to 67 on this day. The talk was followed by the AGM, the minutes of which will be published in the January Laudate, as is our practice. The AGM this year was even more signiicant than usual, as the report of the Warden’s Working Party was revealed. This Working Party was set up to examine the future of the Guild in this ever-changing

Right: The organ in Christ Church Cathedral

May 2015 3 from the nations, a stunning piece, followed by Kyrie, major Fantasia. Dr Stephen Darlingon, the Director Gott Heiliger Geist – JS Bach – on the wonderful new of Music being away on a sabbatical term. Some sat organ. Then we heard the Kyrie and Gloria from the in on the choir rehearsal before a tea of scones with Missa Bell’ Amfitrit’ Altera by Lassus, inishing with the cream and jam! great Chichester Psalms by Bernstein. Choral Evensong was sung to the alternative canticles It was a truly thrilling performance for which we thank with music by Henry Purcell, a verse anthem by Ben and his choir, particularly for giving up a precious Orlando Gibbons and William Byrd’s Responses. Saturday afternoon for our enjoyment. So all in all, it was an excellent meeting. The next and inal stop was Christ Church Cathedral where we were escorted by Rev. John Paton, the Next Year we shall meet at Rochester Cathedral on th th Precentor, on a guided tour plus a visit to the Art the 6 and 7 May. Another irst for the Guild. Please Gallery. Clive Driskill-Smith, the Sub Organist, then note this in your diary now. spoke to us about the organ and played the Bach G John Ewington

Tom Tower and the quadrangle at Christ Church.

FOR SALE: An Oxford MA gown in black stuff – £50 or near offer John Ewington. 01883 743168

4 Laudate 87 Manuscript scores of the opening of Purcell’s O sing unto the Lord a new song and an organ score of the Byrd Responses. As access to the Library was unfortunately not possible on the day, members were given photocopies of these two items, plus the opening of the Gibbons’ verse anthem Great Lord of Lords sung that day.

he Guild of Church Musicians he following Day Course (11am to 3pm) will be held during 2015 at St. Michael’s Church, Cornhill London EC3V 9DS

Saturday, 19th September : Making Sense of the Oice - musically & liturgically A service of he Word : How to do it Making Music it he Word he Reverend Canon Jeremy Haselock

he cost of the course (£15) includes a simple lunch. For further information please contact he Registrar, Mrs June Williams [email protected] 020 8395 7949

May 2015 5 The late Charles Cleall, BMus, MA, GTCL, FRCO (CHM), ADCM, LRAM

1/6/1927 – 11/1/2015

Sometime Choral Scholar – Westminster Abbey International Composition Prizeman of The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York Limpus Fellowship Prizeman of The Royal College of Organists Organist and Choirmaster St Luke’s Chelsea Organist and Choirmaster Wesley’s Chapel, City Road He studied at Trinity College of Music, where his irst Organist and Choirmaster St Peter’s, Hersham harmony teacher was Dr George Oldroyd, though Organist and Choirmaster St Paul’s Portman Square he sought a move in his second year to a professor Organist and Choirmaster Holy Trinity Guildford who was rather stricter. Within a year of graduating Command Music Adviser RN Plymouth he was the Professor of Solo Singing and Voice Professor of Solo Singing and Voice Production Trinity Production at Trinity College. Just three years later College of Music he was conducting the huge Glasgow Choral Union Conductor Glasgow Choral Union and then succeeded Imogen Holst as conductor of Conductor Morley College Orchestra the Aldeburgh Festival Choir. A short while later, Conductor Twickenham Choral Society he sat (and passed) the ADCM at the same session as the late Michael Fleming. BBC Music Assistant Midland Region Music Master Glyn County School, Ewell Charles always paid tribute to Charles Kennedy Scott of Trinity College, “… who was to me such a Conductor Aldeburgh Festival Chorus master.” Yet his own writings about the voice and Lecturer in Music Froebel Institute choir training (particularly for amateurs) went far Adviser in Music London Borough of Harrow beyond those of his master. Charles’s works in this HM Inspector of Schools (Northern Division, Scotland ield have never been surpassed. – Music Specialist) His principal books were: Tutor in Speech Training Scottish Congregational College, Scottish Open College and Napier University The Selection and Training of Mixed Choirs in Churches Music and Holiness he death of Charles Cleall has deprived the church music world of one of its most Voice Production in Choral Technique Table teachers and choir trainers. His career The irst of these started as three lectures given to as a choirmaster started when he was just ifteen the Royal School of Church Music in August 1957. years of age with the creation of a forty-voice He later contributed a few articles to Church Music choir in Ashford, Middlesex. Five years later he Quarterly. His deep understanding of the voice and was Command Music Adviser to the Royal Navy at the technique of singing became part of the standard Plymouth and formed a choir that broadcast within training at the Royal Academy of Music, the Guildhall a few months of its foundation. School of Music and Trinity College of Music until

6 Laudate 87 the late nineteen sixties. The chapter in that book, the Methodist Church Music Society. He saw music An Interlude on Evangelism and Music, is about more as a priestly ministry than a prophetic ministry as hard-hitting as could be, though argued clearly, and expected high standards, whilst being willing to fairly, and logically. This brilliant critique on trivial work with those of little natural ability. church music is as relevant now as it was then, when He was very widely read and thoroughly scholarly. Geoffrey Beaumont’s Twentieth Century Folk Mass In retirement he widened his interests writing was all the rage. Stainer’s Cruciixion did not escape church guide books and the like, and in 2000, he his perceptive yet balanced criticism. (We always was licensed as a Reader in the parish of St Peter’s agreed to differ on this, for I rather like the work). Shaftesbury, in the diocese of Salisbury. He frequently quoted the American philosopher, His wife, Mary, (née Turner) died in 2005, but this Ralph Waldo Emerson, amongst others, thus giving did not inhibit his energetic and superb work, all his writings great breadth and depth. Rhetorically, from his home in Shaftesbury and always delivered he asked if Evangelism need be the enemy of music in a most majestic italic manuscript. and then explains why it need not be (and, indeed, Charles is survived by his brother, Robin, and his should never be). two daughters: The Reverend Anne Lindsay and Charles enriched the repertoire with his Dr Alisoun Nicol. arrangements of Sixty Songs from Sankey, written My abiding memory of this truly great teacher and whilst he was at Hersham and then a schoolmaster, dear friend was of him telling me: “Barry, the real art (where, at Glyn County School, one of his pupils was of choir training is not who you have in the choir. Robert Leach, and another, Barry Wordsworth). It is who you keep out.” These breathe new life into old pieces, with inspiring harmony that underlines the words. His Preface I shall miss his wisdom, erudition and phenomenal set the purpose of doing this in spiritual context, scholarship. recognising that “These songs are the embodiment May he rest in peace. of that cry; they express a dual consciousness; of Barry Williams Christ, in rapture; of the self in humility; but we are not intended to stop there.” It is the last eight words that, as always with Charles, set things in their proper context. This volume is worth buying for the Preface alone. Later in life he arranged many ‘Worship Songs’ with equal skill, but, alas, no publisher showed interest. He produced an excellent edition of Merbecke, wrote a book on plainsong, (Plainsong for Pleasure) and a very useful volume entitled Authentic Chanting. The most striking feature of Charles’s writing on choir training was the explanations of sound methods, based on phonetics, vowel, tone, etc. So much of subsequent choir teaching has been based on ‘See how I do it’, with no real technique or method being imparted. Not so with Charles Cleall!! His techniques are invaluable in training singers, especially amateurs, and have transformed Charles and Mary at their golden wedding, 2003 the sound of many a choir. Both photos kindly supplied by thei family Like Eric Thiman, Charles spent quite a bit of his time working with the Free Churches, particularly

May 2015 7 ‘Dear Lord and Father of Mankind’: The origin of Parry’s Hymn

JEREMY DIBBLE

fter a period of apprenticeship in the 1870s, in 1883. A setting of John Shirley’s brooding and when he devoted much of his creative introspective The Glories of Our Blood and State Aenergies to the composition of chamber was the more successful result. Quite contrary to music, Hubert Parry emerged as a composer of note its imperialistic-sounding title, Parry’s ode was a during the 1880s with a reuptation as a symphonist probing exploration of man’s vanity which had more and as a composer of choral music. As a native of to do with the Book of Ecclesiastes and the theodicy the county of Gloucester where his father had an of Job’s Lamentations. It is a work that has much estate at Highnam, about two miles west of the in common aesthetically (though not structurally) city of Gloucester, Parry grew up with the musical with Brahms’s Requiem and Das Schicksalslied, culture of the Three Choirs Festival in his blood. He pieces Parry knew well and admired both for their was known to the organist, S. S. Wesley, and he had craftsmanship and ethical content. an early piece performed at the festival, an Allegro It was not until the end of 1886, however, that Religioso, in September 1868. But it was not until Parry took on a new commission and this was after the Gloucester Three Choirs Festival of 1880 that the huge disappointment of his Arthurian opera Parry’s more radical personality was truly noticed Guenever, turned down by the Carl Rosa Opera in his dramatic cantata, Scenes from Prometheus Company. Composed at Wilton House near Unbound, a challenging score in which his as yet Salisbury, Blest Pair of Sirens was a setting of Milton’s inchoate assimilation of Wagner and Brahms was Pindaric Ode, ‘At a solemn musick’. Commissioned evident. by Stanford and the London Bach Choir to mark Although the performance of Prometheus – it was Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee, it was met with too dificult for the orchestra and choir – was severely adulation by public and critics at its irst hearing lawed, it was taken up with alacrity by his friend and on 17 May 1887 and has remained one of Parry’s soon-to-be colleague, Charles Villiers Stanford, most often performed choral works. It was greatly at Cambridge in 1881. Appointed as a Professor admired by Elgar and even more so by the ifteen- of History at the newly-founded Royal College year-old Carthusian, Vaughan Williams, at that time of Music in London in 1883, Parry rose quickly to eagerly discovering what was new in English music. national prominence and was commissioned to In the months that followed the success of Blest write a short choral work for the Gloucester Festival Pair, he was overwhelmed with further commissions

8 Laudate 87 from Britain’s two great triennial festivals at Leeds the chorister, Percy Fry, from Westminster Abbey and Birmingham, the latter requesting a large- choir. Critical reception was positive although some scale oratorio. Unsure what to write, and wishing believed that a few judicious cuts would improve to explore some secular themes, he thought of the dramatic impact. When the work was repeated subject matter ranging from Columbus to the at the Novello Oratorio Concerts in London on 6 Albigensian crusades. Of course the imperative for December 1888 at the St James’s Hall, Parry did such a work was choral participation, and when indeed accede to this advice and removed several the Birmingham committee insisted on, as Parry numbers, though arguably some of them – the put it, ‘regular oratorio’,1 he eventually settled on chorus’s lament and trio from Part 2 – contained the story of Judith during the reign of the repentant some of his best music.5 Stanford, himself the author Jewish king, Manasseh, a decision reached with of an oratorio for the 1885 Birmingham Festival, the help of Dean Prideaux’s The Old and New contributed a lengthy review for the Fortnightly Testament connected in the History of the Jews Review and believed the work to be fresh, new and Neighbouring Nations (1715-19) which Parry and distinctly ‘English’ in style.6 (He would later had come upon in September 1887.2 Much of the conduct the work with the Cambridge University libretto he wrote himself, but he also drew widely Musical Society and with the Bach Choir in London.) on material from the Old Testament in addition to Conversely, the iconoclastic, anti-establishment and the deuterocanonical Book of Judith itself. In fact, as outspoken atheist, Bernard Shaw, was mercilessly the subtitle of the oratorio (‘The Regeneration of disparaging. Shaw admired Parry and had been Manasseh’) suggests, much of the oratorio’s drama full of approbation for Prometheus Unbound, not centres on the Israelite king, Manasseh who, for least because, as an admirer of Shelley, an active a time, worshipped pagan gods before repenting. member of the Shelley Society and an adherent As Stanford remarked: ‘He [Manasseh] is beset by to many of Shelley’s radical views, he sympathised two forces, the one evil in the form of fanaticism [a with the revolutionary sentiments of the poem. message with true contemporary resonance], the But when Parry turned his hand to oratorio, a form other good in the form of Judith’.3 Interestingly, which, Shaw perceived, carried all the baggage of the work was initially advertised as Judith and religion, the established church, academicism and the Holofernes,4 giving special status to Judith’s victim, educational establishment, not to mention the piety the invading general of Nebuchadnezzar (though, of festival committees, he considered that Parry had somewhat wisely, Parry avoided Holofernes’ compromised his art and principles. ‘Never was bloodthirsty exploit, his decapitation taking place there a musician easier and pleasanter to praise, ‘offstage’ in traditional Greek manner). painfuller and more ungracious to disparage.’7 After some major wrangling with the Birmingham Shaw rather casually dismissed Parry’s large-scale, committee about the length of the work, Parry got his ‘lavourless’ choruses as ‘unpretentious,...smooth way, and the oratorio was performed on 29 August and sometimes pretty hymnings about nothing 8 1888 under the direction of its conductor, Hans in particular;’ even more curiously he ridiculed Richter with Anna Williams (Judith), Madame Patey Meshullemeth’s ballad as consisting of ‘the irst line (Meshullemeth), Lloyd (Manasseh), Santley (High of The Minstrel Boy, followed by the second line of Priest of Moloch and Messenger of Holofernes) and Tom Bowling, connected by an “augmentation” of a passage from the inale of the second act of Lucrezia Borgia, with an ingenious blend of the The Girl I 1 Dibble, J., C. Hubert H. Parry: His Life and Music (Clarendon Press: Oxford, 1992; rev. 1998), 265. 2 Humphrey Prideaux’s he Old and New Testament 5 It was also suggested that the ‘Intermezzo’ might connected in the History of the Jews and be cut on the grounds of being dramatically Neighbouring Nations from the Declension of superluous, though Stanford vigorously argued the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah to he Time of against such action. ‘It is dramatically necessary’, he Christ was a signiicant work of scholarship in its argued, ‘for otherwise the manner of Judith’s deed exploration of the historical period between the would be untold.’ (Studies and Memories, 153-4.) Old Testament and the New Testament and the 6 Stanford, C. V. ‘Mr Hubert Parry’s “Judith”, Jewish captivities. Fortnightly Review, 44 (1888), 537-45. 3 Stanford, C. V., ‘Hubert Parry’s Judith’, Studies 7 Shaw, B., ‘Parry’s Judith’, The Star, 18 December and Memories (Archibald Constable & Co. Ltd: 1888’ in Laurence, D. (ed.), Shaw’s Music, Vol. 1 London, 1908), 145. 1876-1890 (he Bodley Head: London, 1981), 536. 4 Musical Times, xxix (April 1888), 229. 8 Ibid., 537.

May 2015 9 Left Behind Me and We be Three Poor Mariners.’ and Oxford. The work contains many impressive Amusing though Shaw’s words may be, they require choral movements and in this regard Parry seized challenging for the tune he derided is now one of the happy experience of Blest Pair of Sirens to Britain’s most popular, admired and often-sung assert his afinity for grand vocal writing, particularly hymn tunes, and he must have been emotionally in such numbers as ‘Our king is come again’ and the impervious to the striking nature of much of the inal fugue (‘Put off, O Jerusalem’), both of which individual melodic and harmonic invention of demonstrate that grand sense of Doric architecture Parry’s style. How much, one may also ask, was with which Parry became so closely associated. this invective mingled with inherent prejudice. The choruses concerned with the Jewish captivity Shaw, after all, dismissed Brahms’s music as ‘at (notably the last chorus of Part 1 and the opening bottom only a prodigiously elaborated compound chorus of Part 2) also have an impressive sonority of incoherent reminiscences.’9 Brahms, Shaw rashly and pathos. There is also much ine solo work. The asserted (though he later he recanted), was the ‘Ballad of Meshullemeth’ (the queen-mother) for product of academicism, and Parry, a professor at contralto (‘Long since in Egypt’s plenteous land’), the RCM and Choragus at Oxford, was tarred with who sings of the early Israelite history to her the same brush. children, has become universally known as the hymn Notwithstanding the clash of critical viewpoints, ‘Dear Lord and Father of mankind’. The words are Judith was enthusiastically received by choral by Parry and drew praise from Stanford as a poem societies around Britain and received a large of ‘no ordinary merit … which would do credit to 10 number of performances in the years immediately Mrs Alexander at her best.’ The melody is classic afterwards, notably in Edinburgh, London, Parry and bears all the hallmarks of his rich, diatonic Cambridge, Gloucester (Three Choirs), Bristol 10 Stanford, C. V., ‘Hubert Parry’s Judith’, Studies and Memories (Archibald Constable & Co. Ltd: 9 Ibid., 540. London, 1908), 144-5.

MESHULLEMETH (Contralto) rit. a tempo b b b4 œ ™ j ∑ ∑ & 4 œ œ œ w all their woes redressed.

bbb4 ™ j œ œ œ œ œ œ œbœ œ œ œ œ œ œb œ & 4 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ˙œ nœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ dim. œ ? b 4 Œ œ œ œ œ˙™ œ œ œ œ œ œ ˙œ™ œ œ b b4 Ó Œ Œ { ˙ ˙ ˙

5 ™ bb ∑ Œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ™ & b œ œ œ J ˙ œ The Red Sea stayed them not at all, Nor bœ w œ bb œ œ ? w œ & b œ œ œ œ & œ œ ˙™ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ™ œ œ ?bb ˙ œ œ ˙ ™ ˙ { b Œ ˙ w˙ œ w ˙

Example 1: The first interlude (between stanzas 1 and 2) of Meshullemeth’s ballad (Part 1).

10 Laudate 87 MANASSEH (Tenor) p ™ ##4 ÓŒ œ j œ œ œ &‹ 4 œ œ œ I will hear the in- dig - # 4 œ œ ™ ‰ j j œ & #4 œ œ œ œ œ œ j œ œ œ œ™œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ‰ œ œ œœ œ œ œ œ ‰ œ œ œ œ œ Jœ œ œ œ œ œ J

4 œ {?##4 Œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ

3 cresc. f dim. e rit. ## œ j ‰ j œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ &‹ J œ œ œ œ œ na- tion of God, Be - cause I have sin - ned, have ™ ## œ ‰ j œ œ œ œ œ œ œ & œ œ œ œ œ œœ œœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ# œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ dim. e rit. cresc. f ?# Œ j œ Œ { # œ œ ™ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ

5 rit. # a tempo j # œ œ ™ &‹ œ œ# œ œ œ œ sin - ned a gainst Him, be - ™ œ œ œ œ œ ## œ ? œ œ œ# œ & œ œ #œ œ ‰ & œ œ œ œœ a tempo J rit. œ {?## œ œ j J œ œ œ œ

Example 2: The Intermezzo (‘The Repentance of Manasseh’).

May 2015 11 Poco piu animato > bb4 ™ ™ ™ ™ & 4 œ œ ˙ ˙ œ œ œ œ ˙ œ ˙ ˙ œ œ œ œ œ œ > Œ œ œ Ó Œ œ p > > Va/Vc. 4 Œ œ œ œ œ œ œ Œ œ œ œ œ {?bb4 ˙Ó ˙ œ ˙ œ ˙œ œ ˙ œ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙

5 Vn. b œ ™ ™ j ™ j ™ j ™ j &b œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œn œ ˙ nœ œ œ œ œ

? Œ œ œ œ ˙ œ ˙ œ ˙ Ó { bb ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ Example 3: Slow March from ‘The Exploits of Judith’ (Part 2).

harmonic language. Moreover, the tune here is heard ‘It is the offspring not only of a inished musician but in the full panoply of its more extended AABA form of a cultivated thinker. For such a possession art is replete with yearning interludes (Example 1) from the better and England the richer.’11 the orchestra and the closing trio for upper voices. Judith remained in the repertoire of choral societies Judith’s entreaty to Meshullemeth (‘Lay, thou Queen until shortly after Parry’s death in October 1918. of Israel!’) is a splendid study in lyric declamation as It was given a particularly ine performance by the is the ‘Intermezzo’ (‘The Repentance of Manasseh’) Huddersield Choral Society on 3 March 1922 under in which Parry pays tribute to one his music idols, J. S. the baton of the renowned choral conductor and Bach, in the form a Passion aria (Example 2). In Part trainer, Henry Coward, but thereafter its reputation 2 the solo music is equally strong in Meshullemeth’s declined rapidly in accordance with Parry’s own comforting scena (‘The Lord is long suffering and major neglect after the First World War. Only the merciful’), Manasseh’s quasi-Handelian aria (‘God hymn ‘Dear Lord and Father of mankind’ has kept breaketh the battle’), which looks forward to the the name of Parry’s oratorio in people’s minds, and neo-baroque style of his A Lady Radnor Suite for this is principally owing to the work of the organist strings, the poetic trio for Judith, Meshullemeth and and choirmaster, George Gilbert Stocks (1877- Manasseh (‘Behold how great is the mercy of God’) 1960). Born in Huddersield, Stocks was in charge and Judith’s inal expansive scena (‘’I will sing unto of the music St Edward’s School, Oxford between the Lord a new song’) with texts from the Psalms. 1902 and 1912 and took his musical degrees at But perhaps some of the inest music in the oratorio the university. This brought him into contact with is contained in ‘The Exploits of Judith’ where Parry Parry who was Heather Professor of Music at the fashions another neo-baroque structure from a university. Stocks took his D.Mus. degree in 1908 slow, digniied march (Example 3) introduced by the and, four years later, he took the appointment of orchestra (how Elgar, then a jobbing violinist and a head of music at Repton School in Derbyshire, a post regular in the Birmingham orchestra, would have he retained until his retirement in 1934. While at found this inspiring), a series of Bachian chorale Repton, Stocks assembled the Repton supplement preludes for the Chorus of Watchmen and a rousing to Hymns Ancient & Modern, some 69 hymns, a full chorus of victory. As Stanford observed (who musical edition, which was published as Repton performed in both Cambridge and London in 1889): 11 Ibid., 155.

12 Laudate 87 School: Hymns for use in Chapel.12 As part of the REPTON was subsequently included in the 1931 process of compiling the hymns, which included edition of Songs of Praise, the 1933 edition of the 23 of Stock’s own tunes, Stock also wanted to ally English Hymnal (and the revised edition Hymns some of the hymn texts with well known melodies Ancient & Modern of 1950). The promptness of from the classical repertoire, and being familiar with its inclusion was signiicant. One of the important Parry’s Judith, conceived the idea of allying the main attributes of REPTON was that it was a unison theme of Meshullemeth’s ballad with words taken tune, one of several intrinsic aesthetic components from the last six stanzas of the poem ‘The Brewing common to the English Hymnal and Songs of Praise of Soma’ (irst published in the Atlantic Monthly in and promulgated by the hymnals’ common editor, April 1872) by the inluential American Quaker and Vaughan Williams.18 REPTON was one of many 13 abolitionist, John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-92). unison tunes in both hymnals and relected the These stanzas with their metrical pattern of 8.6.8.8.6 contemporary fashion for this particular brand of (with the last line repeated) scanned perfectly with hymnody and collective singing in the irst half of Parry’s tune. The Headmaster of Repton School the twentieth century in many other hymn books contacted Parry’s son-in-law, Harry Plunket Greene including the 1903, 1919 and 1949 editions of the 14 in May 1924, initially with a copyright request to Public School Hymn Book and the Clarendon Hymn include ‘Jerusalem’ in the Repton hymn book. In Book of 1936,19 Indeed, REPTON appeared in addition to this request, Greene was informed that C. S. Lang’s third edition of PSHB (1949) and the permission had also been asked from Novello to Clarendon Hymn Book and was set to become a use the tune from Judith. Novello’s irst response national favourite among congregations in much was to refuse point-blank on the grounds that the same way that ‘Jerusalem’ had also caught the Parry had not authorised it. But later Novello had public’s imagination. In 1941 the hymn was also second thoughts and agreed to consult Parry’s published by Novello as a hymn-anthem for four- executors, though on the strict grounds that both 15 part choir arranged by Herbert Arthur Chambers the executors and Novello should agree terms. (one of Novello’s in-house editors) in which much Novello wrote to Claude Aveling, the Registrar of of the original musical structure of the aria was the Royal College of Music (who was representing restored. In truth, neither the hymn nor Chambers’ Parry’s executors), asking if the executors would arrangement was what Parry initially conceived, accede to Repton’s request and for the hymn to be and we will never know whether he would have included in Novello’s Parish Choir Book series.16 A approved of it. However, though the circumstances further letter from Novello to Aveling also assigned are slightly different, Parry did approve of extracting the name REPTON to the tune as a compliment his setting of Henry Baker’s poem ‘O praise ye the to the school.17 After the executors agreed to both Lord’ from his verse anthem for Salisbury of 1894, requests, the hymn duly appeared in Repton’s hymn ‘Hear my words, ye people’ (one that required book; Novello also issued it as a separate lealet similar adaptation from the piece’s original form) and as a free supplement in the Musical Times for publication by Novello as a hymn (LAUDATE in November 1924. With Novello’s permission, DOMINUM was the name assigned to the tune) in 12 How, M. et al., ‘George Gilbert Stocks’ in The 1915. What is irrefutable, however, is that REPTON Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology (Canterbury has preserved a tangible connection with one of Press: Norwich, 2013). Parry’s most important choral works, and one 13 Watson, J. R. & Young, C., ‘Dear Lord and Father equally important in England’s choral history. of mankind’ in The Canterbury Dictionary of Parry’s Judith will receive its North American premiere at the Hymnology (Canterbury Press: Norwich, 2013). Koerner Hall, the Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto with the As Watson and Young have noted, Whittier’s words Pax Christi Chorale and Orchestra directed by Stephanie Martin had in fact appeared as a hymn in William Garrett on 3 May 2015. Horder’s Congregational Hymns of 1884 though with some textural alterations. 18 his fashion of unison singing was also supported by other important editors, among them Martin 14 Letter from the Headmaster of Repton School to and Geofrey Shaw and Sydney Nicholson. Harry Plunket Greene, 24 May 1924, GB-Lcm. 19 his style of hymn formed the discussion for the 15 Ibid. author’s key-note paper ‘Morality and Manliness: 16 Letter from Novello to Claude Aveling, 14 May he Fashion and Ideology of the Unison Tune’ 1924, GB-Lcm. Key-note paper for the launch conference of the 17 Letter from Novello to Claude Aveling, 29 May Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology, Bristol 1924, GB-Lcm. University, October 2013.

May 2015 13 BOOK REVIEWS

SIR GEORGE DYSON ~ HIS LIFE AND MUSIC by PAUL SPICER The Boydell Press, Woodbridge 450 p £45 Published 2014 Dr David Bell

ome will remember the actual moment referred to his forthright character and ’no- of the Queen’s Crowning during the nonsensical’ speech possibly being a product SCoronation Service of 1953. First, the of the industrial north, in common with Delius, traditional Shouts of Acclaim followed by a Walton, Beecham, Kathleen Ferrier and Eric Fanfare. Then, after a second’s pause, a huge Fenby among others. The Dyson family were ‘thwack’ on low F of the tympani, which, via a staunch churchgoers in the Nonconformist crescendo for full orchestra, led to the choir’s tradition and attended church every Sunday. entry in Dyson’s setting of the Confortare – George soon learnt to play the organ, later ‘Be strong, be of good courage, passing both RCO exams while still young. keep the commandments of the Lord Awarded a scholarship to the RCM in 1900, and walk in his ways’. Dyson began his long association with the Fewer memories will recall (although there college, studying under W.S. Hoyte (organ) are recordings) the previous Coronation of and Stanford (composition). Parry was then 1937. Included in the music was Dyson’s Director. Dyson was a model student, and setting of Psalm 150. This, too, unfolded like a Walford Davies wrote of him as’ revelling in procession, leading to the inal phrase of the music, not only as a great game, but also as a Psalm. Here, the chord of a major ninth on glorious human language, for ever growing and the sub-dominant was underpinned by a huge yet never growing old’. and unforgettable tympani stroke (and we Dyson’s compositions began to appear, recall that Dyson was the eager tympanist in although many of his early works are lost or Stanford’s orchestra at the College). destroyed. Towards the end of his term at These two anthems were later published the college, he applied for the Mendelssohn separately by Novello, and together with the Scholarship to continue his studies abroad. On settings of the Morning and Evening services, Stanford's’ advice he went to Italy. While there, the modern choralist might be be forgiven for he worked steadily at composing, sending back knowing little else of Dyson’s output, no doubt his scores to the college. guided by current fashions of performance, Eventually he moved on to Germany, and and also the lack of material actually in print. thence to Salzburg and Vienna. Compositions Record collectors, though, have been well were still being received from him in London, served. Modern recordings of The Canterbury and he wrote that ‘my work here is progressing Pilgrims (1930), the Symphony (1937), the well, for I have just completed the libretto of Violin Concerto (1941) and many other works my projected opera’. have been issued. When war came in 1914, Dyson volunteered In this well-written book, Paul Spicer lays out to serve and received a commission. Later, Dyson’s life, music and attainments. Thoroughly while at the front, he was shelled and was researched and eminently readable, he charts eventually invalided out of the army. and explores the musical career of ‘G.D.’ with His long connection with Public Schools began clarity and a scrupulous eye for detail. as Director of Music at the Royal Naval College, Dyson was born into a working-class family Osborne (1908), Marlborough College (1911) in Halifax in 1883, the son of a foreman Rugby School (1914), Organizing Director of blacksmith. Christopher Palmer has (elsewhere) Music to the Air Ministry (1918), Wellington

14 Laudate 87 College (1920) and Winchester College (1924). Boult and this was repeated at the Proms in August, Dyson’s Air Ministry appointment is interesting. His 1943. previous military experience had given him valuable Dyson’s Symphony in G was written in 1937. He insights into service life and procedures. himself conducted the irst performance at the RCM “When I succeeded Walford Davies as Organizing and also at the Proms (BBCSO, 1938) in a programme Director of Music at the Air Ministry in 1918, there otherwise conducted by Henry Wood. Criticisms were two projects begun. One was the RAF Trumpet were largely favourable, though the Symphony was Calls and the other a possible RAF March. I inished regarded by some as being conservative (Walton’s the Trumpet calls and saw them in print …” ground-breaking Symphony had been premiered shortly before). “With regard to the March, Davies gave me a piano sketch of the opening section. We both felt that The Daily Telegraph said – “The Symphony, the there ought to be a broader melody in the middle, most important work of his (Dyson’s) to be heard and I undertook to compose this … Davies saw and in London, was received with every sign of cordiality. approved my complete version, and left the whole Whether music so reined, so remote from passionate project in my hands. I scored it for the RAF Band … impulse … can make an appeal to the mass, is a the march was oficially approved and has since been different question. In these days, when composers the recognized March Past of the Force.” seem bent on striving after the unachievable, it is refreshing to ind one whose aim is as clear as his All of this can be seen as a crescendo to his inal touch is sure...” appointment in 1937, when he succeeded Sir Hugh Allen as Director of the Royal College of Music. And this, from an anonymous writer in the RCM Dyson successfully steered the RCM for fourteen magazine after a performance conducted by Dyson years to 1952 and this period included the duration in Canterbury Cathedral – “The present writer will of the war 1939-1945. He was much admired as never forget the impression the Symphony made a teacher and administrator and respected by the then of something strong, purposeful and high … the students. He continued to compose, setting aside a experience was most moving, touching the deepest set period each day to concentrate on the task. moments in the Andante”. From the outset of his career, his choral works Paul Spicer’s excellent book comes highly recom- included In Honour of the City (1928), the Canterbury mended. It surely points the way for a revival – per- Pilgrims (1930), St Paul’s Voyage to Melita (1933), The formances of George Dyson’s works would be timely. Blacksmith (1934), Nebuchadnezzar (1935) and Quo In this, the Proms could make a start. Vadis (1949). Of all of these the Canterbury Tales proved to be the most popular and was eagerly taken up by many choral societies across the country. The work uses Chaucer’s Prologue to the Canterbury Tales and effectively describes each character while assembling at the Tabard Inn in Southwark. This Dyson does with clever orchestration, bringing each of the characters to life (The Knight, the Squire, the Nun, the Monk, the Clerk of Oxenford, the Poor Parson of a Town etc.). Possibly the most appealing sketch is that of The Wife of Bath, scored for high soprano. Isobel Baillie made this setting her own, and successfully recorded it in 1949 under Malcolm Sargent. She sang in many of the performances conducted by the composer, and Henry Wood introduced the solo at the Proms (9 performances from 1931 to 1948). Dyson’s major orchestral works included the Violin Concerto in E flat (1941). This was extremely well received. The renowned British soloist Albert Sammons gave the irst performance under Adrian

May 2015 15 SIR HERBERT BREWER (1865-1928)

Professor John Morehen

Editor: This year marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Sir Herbert Brewer. To commemorate this important anniversary Professor John Morehen, a former member of the Guild’s Council and Academic Board and now a Special Advisor to the Guild, has prepared a new edition of Brewer’s memoirs. John Morehen, who was himself a pupil of Brewer’s successor at Gloucester Cathedral – Dr Herbert Sumsion – writes:

fter holding church and school appointments “ in Bristol, Oxford, Coventry and Tonbridge, AHerbert Brewer was appointed Organist of Gloucester Cathedral in 1896, a post he was to occupy for over thirty years until his death in 1928. Herbert Howells described him as “the greatest Brewer was one of the most versatile church organist I have ever known”, adding that Brewer’s musicians of his generation, and was arguably the organ pupil Sir John Dykes Bower, who also was most gifted of those whose professional life was present at the launch, agreed with him. In addition spent exclusively in the provinces. Speaking at to being an outstanding organist Brewer was also the launch of EMI’s recorded Treasury of English renowned as a composer (he was a pupil of Charles Church Music exactly 50 years ago, Brewer’s pupil Villiers Stanford), and as a choir-trainer, adjudicator, examiner and teacher. As Organist of Gloucester Cathedral Brewer was intimately involved for over three decades with the Three Choirs Festival, held annually in rotation in the cathedral cities of Gloucester, Worcester, and Hereford. His Memories of Choirs and Cloisters were first published in 1931. In recounting his experiences Brewer offers a fascinating insight into the planning and execution of the Festivals, particularly those held in Gloucester, where he enthusiastically championed the cause of contemporary composers. Brewer provides an absorbing account of his relationship with Sir Edward Elgar (who scored sections of Brewer’s oratorio Gethsemane at a time when the composer was under considerable pressure) and Brewer’s fellow Gloucesterian, Sir Hubert Parry. He also gives an eye-witness account of Samuel Sebastian Wesley’s amusing eccentricities and irritating personal characteristics. So far as continental musicians are concerned Brewer offers irst-hand testimony of the remarkable piano playing of Camille Saint-Saëns, and

16 Laudate 87 he quotes verbatim from his correspondence with economical astuteness was suffused with an innate several eminent continental composers, including sense of integrity and social justice (evident, for Glazunov, Ravel, and Sibelius, whose tone poem instance, in his ensuring the proper remuneration Luonnotar he premiered. Outside the world of of organ blowers, and in his introduction of free music Brewer describes his encounters with literary concerts for local school-children and impecunious igures such as the Poet Laureate Robert Bridges, the adults). Brewer was a keen practical joker, and his novelist Sir Rider Haggard and the writer and critic text is enlivened by countless anecdotes which Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch. In the civic and political reveal him as one whose natural seriousness is arena Brewer’s accomplishments included service frequently relieved by mischievous touches of as City High Sheriff for Gloucester, and to him is humour.” due the credit for persuading the Government to John Morehen’s new edition of Brewer’s Memories exempt the Three Choirs Festival from the crippling of Choirs and Cloisters will be published by Stainer effects of the Entertainments Tax. & Bell Ltd to coincide with the opening of the 300th Brewer’s Memories of Choirs and Cloisters is neither Three Choirs Festival, which will be held in Hereford a conventional autobiography nor a diary, but a from 25 July – 1 August. Copies can be purchased retrospective collection of reminiscences compiled through the Stainer & Bell (www.stainer.co.uk) largely towards the end of his life, probably in the after 25 July 2015. early 1920s. From Brewer’s relections emerges a scrupulous and warm-hearted musician, revered The two fine photographs of Brewer by Bassano are reproduced by his choristers, and a person whose political and by kind permission of the National Portrait Gallery BISHOP & SON Organ Builders Established 1795

58 Beethoven Street, W10 4LG and at Ipswich

Telephone: 0208 969 4328 www.bishopandson.com Find us on Facebook New Organs – Rebuilds – Overhauls – Tunings etc. Restoration of Historic Instruments

May 2015 17 Ancient & Modern Hymns and Songs for Refreshing Worship

he publication of a new hymn book should were received be an exciting event and a matter of rejoicing. that it had been TMany organists, clergy and singers greeted The decided not to New English Hymnal with acclaim for its apparent print a larger traditional stance (and absence of ‘choruses’), only version. This later to be appalled by the unartistic alterations is regrettable, made in such a random and haphazard fashion – an for organists issue that was of great concern to the late Michael usually have to Fleming, an editor of NEH and one of The Guild’s read music over most distinguished Honorary Fellows. two or three Generally, Common Praise strikes a happy medium manuals. However, it is now offered at £120 per between respect for the past and the best of volume, which seems a phenomenal price. contemporary hymnody, the latter in many styles. It Generally, the editors have avoided the infelicities is thoughtfully presented and trite material excluded. of layout that dogged NEH where, for example, ‘Ancient & Modern – Hymns and Songs for each verse of ‘Thornbury’ requires a page turn. It Refreshing Worship’appeaers in a bright red cover is dificult to see how Paul Inwood’s ‘Come, light of and makes an unwise assumption in its title. There the world’ could have been set without an awkward are eight hundred and forty-seven items. Especially turn of the page. welcome is the Biblical Index, which used only to be As with so many modern hymnbooks, the tunes are found in non-conformist hymnbooks. The Thematic set much lower than normal, though the editors at Index is also useful, once it is realised that the most least linched from setting ‘Jerusalem’ in C major. For important liturgical items are shown under the this musically splendid piece the accompaniment is heading of ‘Church Year’. borrowed from NEH, where those editors wrote The choice of words and music is far lighter and their own version. George Thalben-Ball’s three- signiicantly less profound than New English Hymnal stave version in Hymns Ancient & Modern 1950 or Common Praise, but that is a matter of editorial remains the gold standard but was not included choice. With so great a number of items there here, which is a pity. However, a useful manuals only should be ample material for those who seek version by Janette Cooper is given to Michael Perry’s theologically ‘heavier’ pieces. There are over forty paraphrase of Psalms 149 and 150. It is always hymns by Timothy Dudley-Smith, none of which helpful, where a tune has more than one version, are of poor quality; some are exceptionally ine; all to include some variety in a hymnbook. Many are thoroughly serviceable. As is so often the case, ‘reluctant organists’ appreciate Michael Fleming’s inspiration lows from a particular tune. (There manuals-only version of Repton and that, happily, is nothing wrong in this – Charles Wesley’s ‘Love appears in this book. However, this principle is not divine’ was written to be sung to a secular tune by followed elsewhere. Thus ‘Woodlands’, which Purcell from ‘King Arthur’.) Bishop Dudley-Smith’s exists in three versions, (the original, in Songs of ‘Be present, Spirit of the Lord’ to Parry’s ‘Repton’ is Praise; a simpliied accompaniment found in 100 magniicent and appears to relect something of the Hymns for Today, and John Rush’s useful four-part theology of John Vernon Taylor’s ‘The Go-Between harmony arrangement in The Parish Hymn Book), God’ and is a welcome addition to the hymnody appears four times more, yet only in the simpliied for Pentecost. unison version. This is poor editorial work by any Physically the book is about the same size as NEH, standard. Likewise, the ‘Bunesson’ appears in two but the print is smaller, making it much less easy to rather prosaic and static versions by John Barnard read. Also, the layout of the notes is closer to the and Noel Tredinnick. The tune is used four times, house-style of Kevin Mayhew than A&MR 1950. yet nowhere is George Thalben-Ball’s excellent An organ edition was offered, but so few responses arrangement to be found or, indeed, others that

18 Laudate 87 are far better than the offerings here. This is Peter Moger’s ‘arrangement’ of “Spirit of the living unfortunate. God” differs little from the version in Scripture Union That glorious tune ‘Londonderry Air’ appears Choruses of 1921, some forty-three years before three times, but only in two arrangements. Donald Mr Moger was born! Likewise, his harmonisation of Davison’s version appears twice and is marginally ‘Fragrence! has nothing to add to the other versions better than John Barnard’s, but both lack grace readily available. Yet his ine tune ‘Godmanchester’ and felicity in their harmony. John Hughes’ superb to Leigh Fisher’s “Christ our light” is original and (four-part harmony) version has been ignored. This has both shape and harmonic progression that is both a pity and another missed opportunity. underlines the words. John Barnard’s setting of ‘Make me a channel of Graham Kendrick’s relective ‘Here is bread, here your peace’ is really rather ordinary and is yet is wine’ deserves a far better arrangement than another missed opportunity to provide something that by David Iliff. Noel Nouvelet, printed twice, worthwhile for a very popular piece. An original tune (though in different keys) is no better. Surely, an by Mr Barnard, ‘Gowanbank’, to Shirley Murray’s alternative version could have been provided. The ‘For the music of creation’ is more successful, but same arranger’s treatment of ‘Shine, Jesus shine’ even this has the feeling of being a pastiche of W. does, at least, remove the consecutive octaves of the H. Ferguson, rather than a work entirely of its original, but still fails to do justice to a popular item. own merit. It is good to have Luke Connaughton’s ‘Love is his word’ set to the late Anthony Milner’s The weakest aspect of this hymnbook is the way ‘Cresswell’. This strong and well-wrought music in which the ‘chorus’ or lighter type of item is underlines the words. presented. This was an opportunity to enrich the repertoire with accessible and imaginative editions. Richard Runciman Terry has tunes to eight hymns, The opportunity has been lost and is not likely to yet ‘Highwood’ (only in one version) and ‘Billing’ are arise in a hymnbook of this type for some years. each used four times! It would have been good to have ‘Doxford’ and ‘Ecclesia’, and many other ine Christopher Idle’s exceptionally good paraphrase of tunes from Terry. the Gloria is set to Cuddesdon, a splendid pairing The late Reverend Dr Francis Westbrook is of elevated words and music of great liturgical represented only by his most effective arrangement provenance. There is little else of this quality in of ‘Were you there when they cruciied my Lord?’. the book. Yet his even better harmony arrangements of ‘Sing Hosanna’ is, however, given Gerald Knight’s ‘Camberwell’ (“At the name of Jesus”) and ‘Living excellent harmonisation for “Give me joy in my Lord’ (“Lord Jesus Christ”) have been eschewed in heart’, but the alternative version (used for “There’s this book, though they would have been welcomed a man riding in on a donkey”) by John Barnard is so by many choirs and organists. much weaker than the main alternative by Christian It seems utterly astonishing that Jacques Berthier has Strover. Mr Barnard, in the antepenultimate bar, ten items in this hymnbook, whilst Pere Gelineau used conjunct rather than disjunct motion with an has none. There are thirty-six pieces by John Bell. effect that is not merely weak, it almost sounds like John Barnard, an editor of the book, has no less a consecutive! than forty-eight pieces; 18 original compositions; The textual apparatus, e.g. names, dates, origins, 22 arrangements and 7 descants. Compare that etc., is well presented and neatly documented. to the original English Hymnal where there were Regrettably, the enjambments are not marked, as only 43 English Traditional Melodies and 22 items they were in Ancient & Modern Revised and Ancient harmonised by J. S. Bach. In Songs of Praise, Vaughan & Modern New Standard. Williams only included 17 or his own pieces. Surely, Mr Barnard has exhibited editorial indulgence on a In summary, this is not a well-edited book. It massive scale, even if one takes into account the is littered with missed opportunities and many greater number of items in this book. seriously unfortunate editorial decisions. Despite It is regrettable that St. Bees (set for “Hark my soul, having a huge number of items it lacks both ‘weight’ it is the Lord”) has an alteration in the third bar – the and a strong and helpful approach to the ‘lighter’ seventh should fall, as J. B. Dykes correctly wrote items that have stood the test (of at least recent) it. The change here indicates an editorial failure time. to understand basic harmony. There are many Let us hope that a new and completely revised examples of this type in the book. version will appear soon. Barry Williams

May 2015 19 The Complete Responsorial Psalter

cCrimmon Publishing has always been associated with excellence and Mperhaps never more so than in the ield of Responsorial Psalmody, save, perhaps, in presenting Dom Anthony Gregory Murray’s highly serviceable ‘New Peoples’ Mass in revised forms, as required by the various liturgical changes over the years. The ‘Complete Responsorial Psalter’ was published in 1997 and revised in 2000. It was the only volume to come anywhere near ‘The Simple Gradual’ of 1969, published by Geoffrey Chapman Ltd. The responsorial psalm was very much a ‘child of its time’, originating in modern form in the Roman Catholic Church, but having its true genesis in the remarkable translation of the psalms (directly from Hebrew into English) by In many traditions, responsorial psalmody is Joseph Gelineau. Hebrew poetry normally has a here to stay. There are a few in the New English prescribed number of accents in each line, rather Hymnal and New English Praise, but here is the like our Nursery Rhymes. It is a form of ‘sprung complete cycle of three years in one affordable rhythm’. Gelineau’s translation and settings are book. utterly remarkable for their linguistic originality and musical invention, most especially in the psalm The print and quality of editing are, as one expects tones, which were unique. Antiphons, usually in of the McCrimmon publishing house, superb. a conventional form, are interposed between the There is a wealth of alleluias and acclamations, verses, which are normally sung by a canto or with several ‘through’ composed settings of choir. This provides a quite sophisticated form psalms. of psalmody with the limited resources of one Of course, not everyone enjoys this type of singer and a reasonably competent accompanist. music, but there is nothing here that jars; careful Nor surprisingly, Dom Gregory Murray provided editing is evident throughout and the volume is much good material in ‘The Simple Gradual’. most thoroughly serviceable at the very least. At Others imitated, but usually with markedly less times it is inspired. success. Dom Gregory Murray was a friend of Joan The ‘Complete Responsorial Psalter’ was McCrimmon. His contributions in this book are, originally published in three volumes. This new as always, well written. Yet the piece that quite edition is in a single volume and is handsomely moved me most is the antiphon to Psalm 91. presented in a neat plastic cover for just £14.95. Here the short antiphon phrase is set neatly and The opportunity has been taken to eliminate (the with musical concision, over the initials, JMcC, very few) misprints in the former version and Joan McCrimmon, the experienced and extremely introduce some new material. Not everyone will competent mind behind this ine book. wish to use the guitar chords! I heartily recommend this excellent volume to all The Grail translation of the psalms is largely who use responsorial psalmody. intact, but sensitivity has been exhibited in the way inclusive texts have been included. It is a model Barry Williams of discretion and good taste.

20 Laudate 87 The Organ in Saint Michael and All Angels, Mickleham

Barry Williams

here are records of an organ being tuned in Mickleham Church in 1855, though details of that instrument have yet to be found. It had an ‘Hautboy’ stop which was repaired in August 1862 for Ttwo guineas, so it is likely to have been more than a basic instrument. In November 1873 a new organ was purchased from J. W. Walker & Sons. It had two manuals and pedals and cost £200. An extra £1.10s. was charged for a ‘Suitable Organist’s Bench of hard wood’ and another £1.10s. for a ‘Pair of Brass Candelabra Sconces with triple joints’. It is likely that the brackets on the organ in 2010 were the original, though the sconces have long since gone.

This organ had the following speciication:-

Great Organ Compass CC to G in alt. 56 notes

1. Open Diapason Metal 56 pipes 8ft 2. Dulciana Tenor C Metal 44 pipes 8ft 3. Wald Flute Treble } 4. Stopped Diapason Bass Wood } 56 pipes 8ft 5. Principal Metal 56 pipes 4ft 6. Flute Wood 56 pipes 4ft tone 7. Spare Slide

May 2015 21 Swell Organ Compass CC to G in alt. 56 notes

1. Open Diapason tenor C Metal 56 pipes 8ft (grooved into Stopped Diapason) 2. Stopped Diapason Wood 56 pipes 8ft tone 3. Principal Metal 56 pipes 4ft 4. Fifteenth Metal 56 pipes 2ft 5. Oboe Metal 56 pipes 8ft

Pedal Organ CCC to F 30 notes

1. Bourdon full scale Wood 30 pipes 6ft tone

Couplers

1. Swell to Great 2. Swell to Pedals 3. Great to Pedals

Three Composition Pedals to Great Organ

The organ stood in the chamber as at present, but was further back. There is a record that additions were made to the organ in January 1892 when it was also cleaned, the total cost being £63.10s. In 1910 the organ underwent a ‘makeover’ by Norman & Beard. A beautiful wooden case was provided with this inscription:- TO THE GLORY OF GOD

DAUGHTER THIS ORGAN WAS IN LOVING DEDICATED THE OF DAVID AND RESTORED BY MEMORY MARION 17 APRIL BISHOP OF SARAH EVANS HER MOTHER AND OF 1910 BY GUILDFORD OF DALEWOOD SISTER AND

Several tonal alterations were made at this time, but the work was not done to a high standard. The resulting stop list was:-

Great Organ Open Diapason 8’ 56 pipes Wald Flute 8’ 44 pipes Stopped Bass 8’ 12 pipes Dulciana 8’ 56 pipes Principal 4’ 56 pipes Flute 4’ 56 pipes Clarinet 8’ 56 pipes

Pedal Organ Bourdon 16’ 30 pipes Bass lute 8’ 12 pipes

22 Laudate 87 Swell Organ Open Diapason 8’ 44 pipes A New Collection of (bass from Stopped Diapason) Stopped Diapason 8’ 56 pipes Psalm Chants Echo Gamba 8’ 56 pipes Voix Celeste 8’ 44 pipes Submissions are invited for a proposed new collection of psalm chants by contemporary Principal 4’ 56 pipes composers to be compiled and edited by Vernon Fifteenth 2’ 56 pipes Hoyle and Professor Jonathan Wainwright Oboe 8’ 56 pipes (University of York). This will be their second collection of psalm chants; the irst, entitled Couplers Cantica Nova, was published in 1997. Cantica Nova contains 277 chants by nearly Swell to Great seventy composers and it is anticipated that the Great to Pedal new collection will include the work of at least as Swell to Pedal many contributors. The purpose of the project is to disseminate excellent chants that would Two combination pedals to Swell otherwise go unpublished. The new collection will be published in 2016 by Fagus Music. Two combination pedals to Great and Pedal Details on submissions are available on ‘Hitch-down’ Swell pedal www.churchmusician.co.uk. Pedal to activate Water Engine for blowing

It seems that the organ was pumped by water engine The parochial church council, advised by the then on mains pressure (about thirty pounds per square Organist and Choirmaster, sought quotations inch) with a total loss system until the nineteen from two organ builders, both registered Business ifties, when an electric blower was installed in the Members of the Institute of British Organbuilding. churchyard. The contract was placed with James Richardson- In the nineteen seventies, Rushworth & Dreaper Jones of Farnham for a rebuild with modest tonal of Liverpool replaced the Voix Celeste with a improvement, but, happily, the enthusiasm in the two rank Mixture, the Clarinet with a Gemshorn parish was such that it was possible to raise suficient 2’ and the Wald Flute treble with a Chimney Flute. funds for what is an entirely new organ, save the The ‘hitch-down’ Swell pedal was changed for a 1910 casework and the best of the original pipe modern balanced Swell pedal, but the much-needed work. restoration, essential maintenance, cleaning and Three new wind reservoirs have been provided and overhaul was not done. the new blower is now located within the organ By 2010 the organ was showing serious signs of chamber, instead of in a frame in the churchyard. wear and tear. The Pedal Organ mechanism was The organ has a fine new console and is well failing and some pipes did not speak. Parts of the equipped with modern playing aids. The compass action were in accessible and could not be repaired. of both the Manuals and Pedals has been increased The Manuals had the original ‘tracker’ action, using from 56 notes and 30 notes to the modern standard a system akin to an old-fashioned mechanical of 61 notes and 32 notes. typewriter. It was uncomfortably heavy to depress Throughout the process, great care has been taken the keys and was prone to ciphers. This was not to ensure that the organ fulils its main and primary surprising as the basic mechanism was that of 1873, function of leading divine worship. However, it is virtually unaltered. The extreme ‘weight’ of the now able to give a irst-class account of itself in touch was caused by the shape of the pallets rather recitals and concerts. than by the tracker action itself. The Pedal Organ The new stop list was drawn up in consultation with was on pneumatic action and had several notes that the Organist & Choirmaster, Christopher Connett. had not worked in living memory. The layout of the The speciication is as follows: instrument was such that it was impossible to get to the mechanism to repair it.

May 2015 23 Great (9 Stops) Swell (10 Stops) Pedal (5 Stops) Open Diapason 8’ Open Diapason 8’ Bourdon 16’ Stopped Diapason 8’ Gedackt 8’ Principal 8’ Principal 4’ Gamba 8’ Bass Flute 8’(Extension) Chimney Flute 4’ Voix Celeste 8’ Fifteenth 4’ (Extension) Twelfth 2 2/3’ Principal 4’ Bassoon 16’ Fifteenth 2’ Flute 4’ Tierce 1 3/5’ Gemshorn 2’ Mixture III (19-22-26) Mixture II ( 19-22) Clarinet 8’ Oboe 8’ Tremulant Horn 8’ Tremulant (671 Pipes) (671 Pipes) (120 Pipes) (Total 1334 Pipes)

Manual Compass 61 notes ; Pedal Compass 32 notes

Couplers Generals 1-10 located in key slip above Swell keys. Swell Suboctave Beneath Swell Keys (From Left to Right):- Sw-Pd; Swell Unison Off Gt-Pd; Sw- Gt Reversers Sequencer Up ; Sequencer Down ( either side of middle D) Divisionals 1-7 Swell Octave Beneath Great Keys: Same as Swell Swell Suboctave to Great Toe Pistons Swell to Great (From Left to Right) Generals 1-6; Sequencer Swell Octave to Great Up- Sequencer Down ( either side of Swell Pedal); Sw-Pd, Gt-Pd, Sw-Gt Reversers; General 7 & 8. Swell to Pedal Treble end jamb has sequencer and memory level Swell Octave to Pedal controls and display mounted beneath drawstops. Great to Pedal Setter and General cancel thumb pistons beneath Great keys in the conventional Bass End and Treble End locations respectively. Thumb Pistons

James Richardson-Jones P I P E O R G A N B U I L D E R • Tuning and Maintenance • Cleaning and Overhauls TEL/FAX: 01252 672290 • Restoration and Rebuilds MOBILE: 07984 457628 • New Pipe Organs E-MAIL: • Trained with the irm of N.P. Mander Ltd, London [email protected] • Broad experience base in tracker, electropneumatic, pneumatic and direct electric actions

Accredited Member of the IBO for: Tuning and Maintenance, Cleaning and Overhauling and Rebuilds of Pipe Organs

24 Laudate 87 The Mickleham organ – the opening recital by Geoffrey Morgan

he opening recital of any new organ is always an important and exciting event in the life Tof a parish church. On Tuesday, 14th April 2015, Geoffrey Morgan, an Honorary Fellow of The Guild of Church Musicians, quondam organ scholar of Magdalen College, Oxford, a graduate of Trinity College of Music, (with a Fellowship from the same college), and a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, duly put this absolutely superb instrument through its paces. (Mr Morgan also has one of the trickiest in the repertoire. I cannot resist professional diplomas as a irst-study pianist – see quoting Schweitzer: “Over this Prelude and Fugue my comments below.) something like a sunny sky seems to be spread. Organists can easily be esoteric with their recital They are calm and eloquent with a serene delight programmes, pushing tonal boundaries to the limits, that banishes care from troubled hearts”. Geoffrey (and often far beyond!) This has never been a matter captured all of this in his magniicent playing. of concern for Geoffrey Morgan. His programmes Frank Bridge, teacher of Benjamin Britten, left but a are always and invariably accessible, attractive, small organ repertoire, though all of a uniformly high musically presented, and include something new. (I quality. His Adagio in E proved a ine composition recall, with much delight, Geoffrey’s duet recital with to demonstrate the full range of Mickleham’s new the late Carlo Curley at the Fairield Hall, Croydon. organ, from the softest ‘string’ tones, to full organ These consummate musicians presented an evening and down again to the quietest tones. Mickleham of musical treats, faultlessly played; this evening at organ has a special luxury in that the Voix Celeste stop Mickleham was of like standard. It could not have has a full 61 pipes – almost unique in British organs. been bettered.) It was impressive to hear the gradual registration The recital started gently with a lovely aria from changes made within each phrase, each rising in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte; suave phrasing on the grand Edwardian tones, subsiding to almost nothing gorgeous Great Organ Stopped Diapason was in absolute calm. accompanied by the new Swell Organ strings. Alfred Hollins was a noted blind organist and pianist. Geoffrey then improvised on the piece showing the He composed many tuneful works that are unjustly full range of the new organ. neglected. However, his music is often tricky. Here, James Richardson-Jones has given St. Michael & All Geoffrey Morgan’s superb piano technique revealed Angels’ Church a new organ, re-using only eight ranks itself. (Geoffrey has a professional diploma in piano of pipes and the original casework. The console, performance and it certainly showed itself in this very mechanism, soundboards and the vast majority of the dificult item.) The Song of Sunshine is in the bright pipes are new. It now ranks as the most important key of E major, yet does not fall easily under the hands. new organ in Surrey, with a huge tonal palette and an It demands suavity of phrasing and careful shaping of impressive and comprehensive range of pistons. lines. Here, on the ravishing pipes of this wonderful organ, were musical sounds of the utmost sensitivity, Bach’s ‘Great’ Prelude and Fugue in G major is several lutes of glorious tones and a counter melody probably the most dificult of his works under the on the Clarinet (happily restored – the original Clarinet title ‘Great’. The main theme is announced in the was discarded in the 1970s), of great joy. Wow! What Pedal halfway through the Prelude and informs the a performance. Fugue. This neat and lively rendering was understated at a brisk pace, allowing the music to speak for Mozart left little original music for the organ. His itself. Thoughtful manual changes enhanced the great Fantasia K608 owes much to Bach in its strong interpretation, delineating the episodes. This was tripartite fugal structure. It is a virtuoso piece of subtlety with excitement, nuance and nimbleness, in immense dificulty, yet rewarding in the utmost for

May 2015 25 listener and player. The antique grupetti were audience was delighted and rightly so, for their delivered with panache and aplomb, the opening brilliant new organ had been displayed, musically fugue at a cracking pace; the organ colour was and fully, by one of our inest exponents. exuberant. Three ingratiating variations on the James Richardson-Jones is to be congratulated Andante exhibited tonal colours never ever too, on his exceptionally fine organ building. heard before in Mickleham and for which James The instrument, though designed for church Richardson-Jones should be very proud indeed. accompaniment, can give a magniicent account of The double fugue was pointed, at a terriic pace with itself in the major concert repertoire. no sacriice to musicality or technical skill and made a triumphant centre piece to the recital. Geoffrey Morgan was nothing more than himself – Two delightful movements by Percy Whitlock, (Salix brilliant, self-effacing and utterly musical.What an and Divertimento), exhibited the Oboe and Flute evening! It ranked amongst the inest of recitals. stops, all so elegant and intensely musical. Barry Williams Edwin Lemare’s Concert Fantasia, based on four Footnote: The Registrar noted that the way the well-known tunes, was a wonderful display of programme was headed made it appear that the the organ in almost every tone imaginable. Again, recitalist had rebuilt the organ himself: ‘A Recital to panache was always within musicality, so much a Celebrate the Rebuilding of the Organ by Geoffrey feature of this very ine player. Morgan’. Geoffrey is something of an organ builder The recital ended with Percy Grainger’s ‘Handel in himself, but James Richardson-Jones must take the the Strand’ in Stockmeier’s fun arrangement. The credit for building this fine new instrument.

GCM SYLLABUS REVISION : The Archbishops’ Preliminary Certificate *

he Preliminary Certificate has recently • Sing or play some simple music they do not been refreshed and renewed – and is already know Tstrongly recommended for all those who are looking for a irst qualiication in church music. • Respond to three simple listening tests It is open to anyone actively involved as a singer or instrumentalist in Christian worship, younger or older. The aim is not only to develop practical work, • Answer questions orally, including some on a but to encourage attentive listening and relection Project (which in most cases will be submitted on the role of music in worship. in advance). Is this a qualiication that you could recommend to others if you are a Director of Music, or consider For the Project, there is a choice from the following doing yourself? For the full syllabus, please see three options: the Guild’s website, or write to the Examinations 1 Writen project. Candidates submit a written Secretary, Dr Helen Burrows (email helen. project or essay of between 800 and 1200 [email protected]). The following is a brief words. They choose the topic themselves outline. (although the syllabus provides guidance). There is an examination in which those who enter will be asked to: 2 Presentaion. In the examination, the candidate • Sing or play two contrasting pieces. (These presents a talk lasting 10–15 minutes. The should be pieces that could be sung or played in topic is self-chosen (although the syllabus the candidate’s place of worship before, during provides guidance). Credit will be given or after an act of worship) for appropriate and correctly-referenced

26 Laudate 87 Above: A group of successful candidates from Combe Bank School Are you aware of the Guild’s pictured at Southwark Cathedral last two beautiful medallions? autumn when they were presented with their Preliminary Certificates by The Guild’s two beautiful badges for the Archbishops’ Preliminary the Archbishop of Southwark. Certiicate and Award are available from the Adminstrative Secretary, John Ewington. The Preliminary Certiicate (left) costs £10 and the Award £15 (both prices include p&p).

examples and illustrations, which should include at least one of NOTE: Any Guild certificate or diploma holders the following: brief recorded may wear either of these badges. extracts; slides or other visual display; singing or playing solo and/or with others; (extracts from) original composition(s).

3 Composition. Candidates compose one or two short pieces for voice(s) and/or instrument(s) which are suitable for use before, during or after worship. A recording must be submitted, and/or a printed or handwritten score. Hugh Benham, Chairman of the Academic Board

* Note the certificate’s new title!

May 2015 27 Laudate in Terra Australis – Australian Correspondent’s Report

Neville Olliffe 2015 Australian Festival The installation and blessing of these bells in August 2014 at Our Lady of the Angels Church in the newly Service formed parish of Rouse Hill in “greater Sydney” his year’s annual Festival Service in “The (approximately 50 km north west of the Sydney Great South Land of the Holy Spirit” will CBD) encouraged us to take a drive and investigate. Tagain be held at the Guild Church, St John However, when we arrived, we discovered the the Evangelist, Gordon, on Saturday 29th August church still a building site: the brickwork and at 3 pm. externals were basically in place but the interior With the service planned for the southern (what we could see from behind the builder’s hemisphere eve of Spring, the new season was fencing) was a long way from completion. We could, taken into consideration as a factor for the theme. however, just detect one of the bells in the tower. So, with our minds inluenced by warmth, freshness, Considering our estimation of the work to be optimism, and the germination of life, our challenge completed, progress must have been remarkable has become: The Giver of Life - the Holy as the church was oficially opened on Wednesday, Spirit and Springtime. the 25th March 2015, the feast of The Annunciation. As usual, we hope to make afternoon tea both a Another visit to the church indicated that some feature and attraction. Afternoon tea will provide tidying remained and might be reliant on further plenty of opportunity to socialise, but also to browse funding. For this day and age, the church’s design is study course syllabuses and sample ACertCM traditional – the church building committee asked for portfolios and to talk to Guild and Australian Council an iconic-traditional-looking building - but with some members. contemporary trade-offs. There is noticeable quality For further information regarding the Festival in the brick-work, the dome, ceiling, and bell-tower. Service, contact either Australian Council Secretary The church seats around 500 in the main body, Don Yorath or Chair Madeleine Rowles in this area, facing the sanctuary. Side colonnades, Of interest: Our Lady of the Angels’ Bells the lovely vaulted high ceiling in deep blue with gilt Toward the end of last year, a friend emailed me a stars forming the southern sky constellation and photograph of three huge bells in transit – two on a large marble-trimmed sanctuary area give the whole trailer and one on the back of the towing ute. He had an aura of width and spaciousness. A traditionally- two good reasons for sending the photograph: for designed rood hangs over the sanctuary, and the one, my wife, Madeleine (Australian Chair-person) eight windows in the dome depict the Genesis as a sideline, makes nautical bell ropes (although not creation. for bells of the sizes depicted here!) and, for two, Tim Tracey of Tower Clock Services Australia, as church musicians, we would be interested since was responsible for the bells installation. His irm they were destined for church installation. maintains many of the clock and bell-housings in The colony in Sydney, Australia was founded Australia’s cities and towns. Tim kindly supplied the ‘recently’ in 1788. The proximity of this date means following information: that we don’t have the centuries of surviving elegant The bells were cast at the Royal Eisjbouts Foundry church infrastructure of our English and European in Asten, the Netherlands. ancestors. As a ledgling population, most of our Bell G1 has a diameter of 1033mm and weighs a places of worship were adequate or, at best, modest hefty 685kg. C2 is 778 mm and weighs 289 kg; and in size and afluence. Bell towers and tolling bells E, 617 mm and 144 kg. were uncommon, and in the few churches where They can be rung either electronically or by hand, they were installed, today, they may no longer be with the smaller bells programmed to strike the in satisfactory working order. Angelus at noon and 6pm on weekdays.

28 Laudate 87 The unfinished church in November. Photo Madeleine Rowles.

The bells on their way to installation in the tower. Photo courtesy Tower Clock Services Australia.

Inside the bell tower; bell dedicated to the memory of Giovanni and Cecilia Vasta. Photo Gene Ramirez reprinted courtesy of the Rouse Hill Courier.

May 2015 29 The dome, icon of Christ and Creation windows. Photo Gene Ramirez reprinted courtesy of the Rouse Hill Courier.

Interior view from near the musicians’ area of the gallery, prior to building completion. Photo Gene Ramirez reprinted courtesy of the Rouse Hill Courier.

The finished church exterior. Photo Madeleine Rowles.

30 Laudate 87 News from the Royal School of Church Music

REVD RICHARD at www.rscm.com/musicsunday, along with details COLES ENCOURAGES of events registered so far. If you wish to cover a CHURCHES TO local event in your editorial area, please contact us CELEBRATE RSCM in the irst instance – number below. MUSIC SUNDAY Heather Bamber: RSCM Marketing & Communications Administrator [email protected] 01722 424847 he priest and broadcaster, The Royal School of Church Music The Reverend Richard 19 The Close, Salisbury, SP1 2EBA TColes, has given his sup- port to the celebration of music in church worship, as the Royal School of Church Music (RSCM) invites churches of all denominations to celebrate RSCM A MESSAGE FROM THE TREASURER Music Sunday. Subscription reminder The RSCM is inviting churches to give thanks for Annual subscriptions are due on 1 January, but at the the power of music in church worship and to afirm end of March there were still 112 members who had the work of those who make it. Over the years not paid their subscription for 2015. If you have not there have been many imaginative Music Sunday paid yet please do so as soon as possible. You may send ideas, as churches all over the world have organised a cheque for £20 to me at 3 Sewards End, Wickford, anything from sponsored singing of favourite hymns Essex SS12 9PB or send an electronic payment to and organ crawls, to special collections, church HSBC 122 Finchley Road Sort Code 40-03-02 for the services and concerts. The 50:50 element of the account of The Guild of Church Musicians account campaign enables churches to raise funds equally number 71033697. If you make an electronic payment for themselves and for the RSCM. please include your membership/reference number, To promote Music Sunday the RSCM visited Finedon as shown against your name in the 2015 Yearbook, in Parish Church in Northamptonshire, where priest the reference ield. Overseas members should make and broadcaster The Reverend Richard Coles an electronic payment for GBP20 using IBAN no is the Vicar. A video follows preparations for a GB19MIDL40030271033697 BIC MIDLGB2106H. Again special Music Sunday Choral Evensong. Revd please quote your membership/reference number. Coles, who was a chorister and later a member Unfortunately there are approximately 50 members who of The Communards, is in no doubt about the did not pay their 2014 subscription and did not respond importance of music in worship. “Music is absolutely to a reminder letter sent last September. If you are one fundamental to worship for me. It’s a medium of of them please bring your account up to date immediately connectivity; it connects the horizontal axis of who or your membership will be suspended and this will be we are, to the vertical axis of how we relate to God. the last edition of Laudate that you will receive. Music is the means that achieves that. And it’s an Gift Aid enormous draw here; what we have is a parish choir If you are a UK taxpayer you can increase the value of on full throttle deeply committed to the music and your subscription by 25% if you complete a Gift Aid that’s wonderful.” declaration. I am disappointed by how few members Revd Coles thinks that Music Sunday also has an have done so, potentially depriving the Guild of a valuable important function in afirming the musicians who source of Government funding. If you are eligible and make music in church. “Music Sunday is a chance for have not already completed a Gift Aid declaration please us to draw ourselves up to full height, take a deep contact me and I will send you the necessary form. If you breath and present what we do in as compelling a are a basic rate taxpayer you do not have to do anything way as possible,” he said. “It’s not about the people other than completing the form and returning it to me. who we address when we do that, but in telling us If you are a higher or additional rate taxpayer you should who we are too. It’s a very important thing in a declare the payment on your Self Assessment tax return. world where people ind it dificult to commit to Your basic rate allowance is then increased by 125% of lunch to ind people who are prepared to commit the amount you give to the Guild, which will reduce your to something which really is rooted deeply in the personal tax liability in addition to beneitting the Guild. community.” Robert Andrews ~ Treasurer More information about Music Sunday can be found

May 2015 31 Dr Thomas is writing an article based on his research work for 50%the discountSeptember – issue use ofcode Laudate 50CFJ15N but in the when meantime ordering here are the details of his newly-launched book.

English Cathedral Music and Liturgy in the Twentieth Century Martin Thomas, former Canon Precentor, St Edmundsbury Cathedral, UK

'Martin Thomas's new publication deals with a period of recent musical and liturgical reform. He applies a critical eye to the contributions of a great many living figures, and we can expect that forceful opinions will produce strong reactions. In circles where musical orthodoxy rubs shoulders with well-worn historic repertoire, this welcome study calls for high quality new music, written in a higher service.' Philip Wilby, University of Leeds, UK

Examining the development of English cathedral music during a Contents: Foreword, Michael Nicholas; Introduction; The Victorian period of liturgical upheaval, Martin Thomas demonstrates that stylistic background; Music in English cathedrals 1900–1950, general change in cathedral music was impeded by leading church music background; Examples from individual cathedrals illustrating the figures and organisations resulting in its becoming an identifiable, themes of chapter 2; Music in English cathedrals 1950–2005, general consistent, and archaic genre. Drawing on primary sources from background; Examples from individual cathedrals illustrating the libraries and archives of cathedrals, Thomas explores contemporary themes of chapter 4; Conclusions; Select bibliography; Index. press coverage and the records of church music bodies, publishing practices, secondary literature, and the music itself. This book offers May 2015 284 pages an important resource for music, theology, and liturgy students and Hardback 978-1-4724-2630-7 £65.00/$119.95 ministry teams worldwide.

About the author: The Revd Dr Martin Thomas is a former Canon Precentor of St Edmundsbury Cathedral and a Church of England parish priest and academic. He holds first class degrees in Music (Edinburgh) and Theology (Oxford) and completed his PhD thesis at UEA. He has contributed many articles to scholarly and popular journals.

View online at: www.ashgate.com/isbn/9781472426307 and use code 50CFJ15N ebook PDF: 978-1-4724-2631-4 ebook ePUB: 978-1-4724-2632-1 Discount not available for these electronic versions. Please see www.ashgate.com/ebooks for suppliers.

ASHGATE www.ashgate.com

32 Laudate 87